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VHA Rules
Here are some rules we'd like you to follow for fair play and some guidelines that we think will help improve the quality of this hackathon. Preparation There is a setup involved that we strongly suggest you prepare. Preparation in the form of limited beforehand implementation of your idea is allowed and even encouraged, but nothing that commits you (or your future team). So setting up a project (VCS), setting up some Activities/Fragments to save boilerplate work (an empty template app), making sketches, designs, mockups is all ok. Writing more than a start of idea-specific code or creating more than basic artwork is not ok. As we assume not everybody might get round to pitching, preparing your idea well will likely pay off. So come prepared! Scope You are asked to either: *build a small but well-finished visual Android app. *build the core demonstration of an app if you depend heavily on APIs or algorithms The app needs to fit within 4 themes (to avoid template copying and stimulate fairplay) that will be announced onsite. There are no other restrictions whatsoever, apart from the focus on Android. TV, tablet, phone, watch, all are ok. Teams and pitches You aren't required to form teams in advance, you will need to pitch your idea at the start. Or you can join someone else’s idea of course. Teams need to have 3 people, preferably one of which performs design and UX tasks. At the start of the hackathon we will offer you the floor to briefly and informally pitch your idea(s). Have a look around, maybe do a brainstorm beforehand, and look for an idea that is doable and attractive. A good pitch in this case is short, made up on the spot, motivates others to join you and defines as clearly as possible the boundaries of what you are going to make, what it looks like or resembles, and what (APIs) it is going to use. For people to join you they need to know what skills they need to match. License / intellectual property Indicate and agree on the license you will use within your team. This is important but you need not spend a lot of time on it. You could just go with GPLv3 open source. Open sourcing is not required (but is sometimes necessary to meet the requirements by sponsors for prizes, please ask). Published images/videos/other on this wiki should be under the Creative Commons BY-SA license. You are required to submit your apk to be able to apply for a prize (as per sponsors' conditions), see below. Version control & hosting You can use your own and link there, or you can use the default: git and GitHub. The default will be to create a repository under the VHA organization on GitHub. Public app 1. You are asked to publicize your app on the Google Play Store immediately after (before final presentations; in whatever state it's in). The organizers will then add it to the list on AppBrain. 2. Next deadline for republishing the local winning app is October 14th (assuming you've continued to work on it). 3. There's obviously another deadline in London. Judging For judging at the end of the local hackathon typically the follwoing two methods are combined, but this depends on your location: *A jury will give their scores, based on the presentations or the wiki. *Audience votes. The top winners don't have to be announced at the hackathon. The AppBrain app list can be used for democratic voting up until some time after the event. Typically this is done during the Demo Hour on Sunday using these categories. Continuation After this initial local hackathon it is allowed and requested to continue to improve the winning app. The same app is carried on as theme to the final London hackathon: you will continue to work on your app in the final hackathon (or restart, but work on the same subject). The home group is encouraged to help their winning team finish their app up to and even during the final London hackathon from back home. There is no more pitch or team forming. We do allow a certain level of practical convergence, meaning that over time city teams may join forces, restart, or choose a competing theme. Global Results There will be global voting, as well as judging by sponsors to accord prizes. These global results will be announced on October 28th at DroidCon London. An example is "Best Use of the PayPal API".